Dáil debates

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Topical Issue Debate

National Positive Ageing Strategy Implementation

4:35 pm

Photo of Mary Mitchell O'ConnorMary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Time and time again, we hear in the media about a crisis coming down the tracks for which we must prepare. This crisis will require our health service to be adequately resourced and equipped to deal with an influx of patients requiring timely and accessible treatment. Furthermore, we also hear about the detonation of a time bomb, which is sure to have catastrophic consequences. While one could be forgiven for thinking this crisis indicates a looming, dreadful tragedy, the reality is it is one of the great success stories of our time. Irish people are living longer, they are living more healthily and they are living more active lives. One of the consequences of this is that the proportion of our population over the age of 65 is set to increase steeply in the coming years. This poses challenges in how we provide services to support older people to live the lives they choose, but it is also an opportunity to support positive ageing, to see older people as a group that contributes to our society and that benefits our communities. We must prepare to deal with these demographic challenges.

When we talk about planning for an ageing population, what we are talking about is developing an age-friendly society not only for those currently over the age of 65 but for all of us who hope and wish to grow old in the future. Planning requires a whole-of-government approach and while the Departments of Health and Social Protection are the ones we first think of in the context of older people, programmes and initiatives are also run by the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Environment, Community and Local Government, which provide services and supports to older people.

The national positive ageing strategy, NPAS, sets out a blueprint for how policies and services could be designed to protect the rights of older people. The strategy was finally published in 2013 following six years of discussion. It took the combined efforts of three governments, five political parties and three Ministers for older people simply to get it published. The strategy provides a roadmap for Ireland to begin planning for the needs of older people now and in the decades to come, but more than two and a half years on, we are still awaiting for the implementation plan to set out how this ambitious strategy will be delivered an implemented. It will transform the lives of older people today and the millions of us who hope to grow old. I urge the Minister to prioritise the implementation of this transformative strategy. We will all grow old and we should be able to do so safe in the knowledge that our Government will prioritise our needs.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the implementation of the NPAS. I am taking this debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who is in the Seanad.

The programme for Government committed to completing and implementing the NPAS in order that older people are recognised, supported and enabled to live independent full lives. The strategy was published in April 2013 and provides the blueprint for a whole-of-government and whole of society approach to planning for an ageing society. The NPAS provides a vision for an age-friendly society and includes four national goals and underpinning objectives to provide direction on the issues that need to be addressed to promote positive ageing. The strategy aims to promote the health, well-being and quality of life of older people by focusing on issues relevant to them across the policy development and service delivery process. This a cross-departmental strategy. Improving health, well-being and quality of life of older people will be a gradual and progressive process involving a shift in mindset by Government, policy makers, service providers, and, indeed, all of society.

A healthy and positive ageing initiative has been established to implement the research objective of the NPAS. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Health, the HSE's health and well-being programme and Atlantic Philanthropies. The initiative will monitor changes in older people's health and well-being linked to the goals and objectives of the strategy. This will be done primarily through the development of positive ageing indicators to be published every two years. The HSE will also develop a physical activity communications campaign under the initiative.

It is clear that a great deal happening is across government that is of relevance and of benefit to older people. My Department is currently considering how best to ensure that the objectives included in the strategy, which are mostly broad, will inform all policies that affect older people on an indefinite basis into the future. We are still in the early stages of implementation, but the NPAS is a clear indication by Government of the importance that it attaches to older people. The strategy is a commitment to ensuring Ireland will be a society that both celebrates and prepares for population ageing and the aim is to become a society in which the equality, independence, participation, care self-fulfilment and dignity of older people are pursued at all times.

Photo of Mary Mitchell O'ConnorMary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister's comment that the Government is in the early stages of implementation but I am looking for the strategy to be prioritised. The root of the problem is that there is no co-ordination and overall responsibility for its implementation. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is charged with leading on the development of age-friendly workplaces while the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is charged with the development of alternative housing options that meet the needs of older persons. Some Departments are proceeding with the objectives but there is no overall co-ordination and implementation plan that brings together their disparate efforts. It is imperative that such a plan be developed for the strategy to be successful. It should set out clear timelines against which progress can be measured. We need to act decisively, engaging all arms of government to address the needs of the current and future generations of older people.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I concur with the Deputy's earlier remarks. I become concerned when I hear people talking about an ageing crisis, a demographic time bomb and so on. We should look on ageing as an enormous opportunity, for which, of course, we have to plan. The fact that people are living so long highlights the success of modern medicine and health care. They would not have lived as long in the past but I acknowledge we need to prepare. My Department has made a particular effort in the past year to put in additional resources into the fair deal scheme, home care packages and other measures to support people later in life and that will continue in the service plan being published tomorrow.

Overall responsibility for the strategy falls to the Minister of State with responsibility for older people in my Department, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, but the objectives come under a diverse range of Departments and agencies, each of which has to play its role. It is a cross-departmental strategy and there have been ongoing contacts with all relevant Departments and agencies. On foot of these contacts, the Department has formulated the proposed new arrangements to improve engagement among stakeholders and the relevant Departments and agencies. This is now up for discussion with the Department of the Taoiseach prior to formal submission to the senior officials group and the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy. It is intended that the new implementation arrangements will be agreed by the end of this year with a view to submitting them to the senior officials group early in 2016.